ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of three student orientations toward communication in the classroom. First, students have a variety of backgrounds including differing learning styles and preferences that provide important insights as to how they receive communication messages. Students differ in their backgrounds, abilities, and preferences when processing information in instructional settings. Student maturity level, defined as a student's level of experience that a learner brings to the learning situation, is one factor that researchers have found influences how students prefer to receive instructional communication messages. Student orientation to reduce their communication with instructors or other students has a significant effect on instructional communication dynamics. Some students have an orientation to increase their communication with both teachers and their student colleagues. Increased student verbalization has both benefits and drawbacks in academic settings. Compulsive communicators, also labeled "talkaholics", are students who talk more than most other students.
